Most European countries were once deeply governed or influenced by religion, especially during the medieval period. But starting around the 15th century, the power and influence of organized religion began to decline in many places.
Was this shift toward secularism in your country driven by a particular leader, government, or movement? How did it happen? Was it gradual, or was there a defining moment that changed everything?
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Can’t think of any, there just seems to be a slow trickle from sometime in the 19th century that picks up speed during the first half of the 20th century and culminated maybe last decade?
Mostly USSR being pro-materialist.
Also on a sad note – nazi Germany in WW2 specifically targeting religion activists and jews to massively kill them.
Yes. In the case of Montenegro, Prince Danilo singlehandedly ended the centuries-long theocratic rule in 1852. Before him, every Prince (ruler) of Montenegro was at the same time the leader of the country’s Orthodox Church. He refused.
As for Greece, can’t really think of one. The country has been religious for pretty much it’s entirety.
No this was gradual. But like many countries in Europe the Enlightenmet movement was one of the most important things which contribute to the secularisation of our country.
In Austria, this is clearly linked to Joseph II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1765 to 1790.
He was generally an absolutist, enlightened reformer. His alleged motto was: Everything for the people, but nothing through the people.
His religious policy was characterised by his view of ecclesiastical institutions as public affairs of the state.
“The sovereignty of the state over the church extends to all ecclesiastical legislation and practice established and practised by man, and to everything else that the church owes to the approval and sanction of secular power. Consequently, the state must always have the power to limit, change or revoke concessions made in the past whenever reasons of state, abuses or changed circumstances so require.”
Concrete measures:
Dissolution of 700 monasteries of contemplative orders (i.e. those that did not engage in charitable activities such as running hospitals or schools).
Reduction of papal influence
Prohibition of ‘superstitious’ customs of the Church
Religious freedom for Protestants and Jews, but preservation of the supremacy of the Catholic Church, which he regarded as a useful instrument of state policy
Abolition of many public holidays and church festivals (pilgrimages, processions, etc.), mainly to increase the number of working days.
Rationalisation of the administrative structure of the Catholic Church in Austria
Many reforms met with strong resistance, and at the end of his life, some of them had to be reversed. His successor was also reform-minded, but only remained in power for two years. And of this his son and successor was more interested in botany than in governing and, in the context of Napoleon, allowed his statesman Metternich to turn Austria into a reactionary police state.
In Germany, you can probably mostly trace it back to Martin Luther, but it took some more twists after him.
The first step was to make religion a state’s right, so the Empire didn’t have a say in it. However, this didn’t work very long because states’ borders constantly changed, and forcing people to change their religion every time their ruler changed wasn’t a working strategy. So they changed the rule again that at least Catholics and Lutherans were allowed to practice their religion everywhere. This led to the strange outcome that Catholic monarchs were the heads of their respective states’ Protestant churches. This first glimpse of religious tolerance gradually led to more religious tolerance and secularism. It’s a gradual and unfinished process though.
No. The Catholic Church sex/child abuse scandals coming to light secularised Ireland over night. Mass attendance dropped from over 80% to less than 20% in a year or two
Napoleon kinda did that. He confiscated property that belonged to the church (abbeys and monasteries) and he seperated religious and civil law.
No, there was not a single person. Secularization only arrived in 1974 and it was progressive during the years. In 1975 you had priests with microphones in the streets telling crowds to burn down local centers of the Communist Party and nothing happened to them. I went to school in the 90s and my teacher was a supporter of the defunct fascist regime and made us pray one Ave Mary every day (and sing the national anthem).
This government of idiots postponed the celebrations of 25th April because the Pope died. Well they postponed those they could control because the people still went to the streets celebrate and they could not stop us.
We’ve never been big on secularisation, but the exception was the government of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy between 1870 up until the turn of the century.
The government was forced to do it, in a way, because the Catholic Church stood in the way to reunification, since the 1848 revolutions that shook Europe. It became unavoidable after 1870, when the Pope stood in the way of the reunification with Rome.
The Army conquered Rome (first breach to the walls led symbolically by a Jew) and made it the capital of Italy. The Pope not only declared himself a prisoner but excommunicated all Italians who participated in the political life of the country (excommunication that lasted until 1929, when Mussolini negotiated a new deal with the Pope).
As a result, the new political life of the newly unified Italy was marked by a major degree of conflict with the church, with many PMs having ties with the masonic lodge and taking over tasks that were previously a domain of the church (such as education). There were other symbolic acts, such as the erection in Rome of a statue remembering Giordano Bruno, a philisopher of the XVI century burned at stake for heresy.
Emperor Joseph II closed monasteries and pushed back on the Church.
But the most secularization happened during ww2.
For Germany I would think it was the end of the monarchy 1918. Before that the connection between throne and altar was strong.
In Italy it was neither. The power of the Church had been a topic in italian politics since at least the latter half of the middle ages (a big example is the civil conflict in Florence during Dante’s time, where the two main political parties were the pro-Pope and the pro-Emperor ones). Given that the Catholic Church had political power (and not just spiritual), by ruling a whole country, the matter was about how much political power the Church should have, besides its religious one. Given also that pre-unification Italy was split in different countries, each one had a different approach towards the Holy Seat. Unification came in conflict with the Pope because it meant taking his territories (including Rome), which also meant that the State was supposed to be independent from the Church, but tension remained (leading up to the Patti Lateranensi).
The constitution of 1849🇩🇰
We still have a national religion but freedom to believe in other religions was introduced then as a civil right. About 80% are still members of the national Lutheran church.
It was mainly made to ensure the Jewish minority was protected as at that time pretty much 98% where Lutheran christians in Denmark.
The effort was mainly driven by the National-Liberals and the Copenhagen elite.
Funnily enough the National-Liberals wanted a one people strategy(I suggest reading about the 2 Schleswig wars). Many of them were priests themselves and were against it. But they needed the Copenhagen elite to back them.
For Spain, after decades of forced imposition and official support by the state, after the dictator died in 1975, the church has remained a conservative institution stained by its fascist affiliation. People have become gradually less and less religious since then.
Josip Broz Tito after 1945, but it mostly got reversed during the 1990s. Croatia is only secular in name for the last 35 years.